tampered | (no subject)

When; Late evening, the 25th.
Rating; PG13 probably.
Characters; Nick & Remy
Summary; Interrogating the new telepath will obviously go much better if he's hammered first.
Log;

Nick's Christmas has been quiet, really; he and Ein meandered down to midnight mass behind the Pied Pipers of Merriment on the eve before, was startled to receive a book about chess from Jean Paul and otherwise largely ignored the holiday. (Except for the parts of a party upstairs that were hard to miss even when you weren't attending.)

When it's quieted down all around, he leaves the corgi to his own devices a while and makes his way to meet with Remy, as per previous arrangement.

(People that'll understand explanations he'd give if he were inclined to have been few and far between; his actually giving the explanation is even rarer. When any sort of ability of the sort is generally considered to definitely not exist and be the realm of hoaxers and the delusional, and on top of that half of yours is invasive by nature, one gets out of the habit of volunteering much. He's pretty sure this'll be interesting from either side of the conversation.)

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"De world don' rest, you jus' get tricked," he says, chuckling around his cigarette. It's a dark humor, but oh well. He doesn't think Nick will mind.

"You take good care of her."

Judging by the laugh, Nick's not the type to mind, no. He's...more the type to make terrible dark jokes in times of stress, see: some of the things he said when ... tying Emery's mother up in Rose Red's kitchen look it's a long story.

"That's the plan."

Remy's technically committed genocide before. He's not really one to talk. About anything ever.

"Also I'd... suggest not really bringin' up shit like her dad an' that whole business first if you can avoid it. I'm sure you know how to shrink heads better'n me, but mutants get touchy about things."

"Fathers can be touchy topics, even the bog standard," the voice of experience, though it's psychiatrist's experience of having daddy issues projected onto him, rather than as someone who has his own, "I'll step with care."

He grimaces, then. "I wish I had someone to refer her to."

"Hey man, you started it."

Remy sounds wryly amused, but there might be an undercurrent of 'Now you are stuck with this and if you upset her I will end you' that is... entirely genuine.

Somehow Nick knows better than to think it's anything other than genuine. "It'd be incredibly unethical to take her on as a patient," he says, with a little wryness of his own, "but there's plenty I can do besides that."

He should look into the hospital sometime in the new year, probably. Or practise privately - that's not an idea without merits.

Reasons it'd be unethical include 'because they keep flirting', by the way.

You better be careful about that, Nick. Meddling in peoples minds AND their personal lives? Don't ask Remy to break your face like that. You seem like such a nice guy. :(

"I know she needs help. But she's someone we gotta keep safe." There's a weight to the 'we', there, and it's clear he's not just talking about himself and Nick.

Nick doesn't want to have a personal life, please.

Clear as daylight, yes- "She didn't say who wanted to speak with me, but I did get the impression it wasn't just the one person." A prompt or an observation - no, it's probably a prompt. Even if Nick wasn't particularly observant, he and Remy haven't known each other long enough to be any kind of 'we'.

(Get your damn minds out of the gutter, he can read them.)

"Rictor'll probably say howdy, yeah," Remy tells him. We pertains to mutants, really - the mutants who have existed with X before their names in titles and in warrants, the mutants who have fought and bled and died for their people, who understand that the Decimation was due to Magneto and Pietro and not Wanda.

(You're not his type, Nick.)

Nick's a mild-mannered psychiatrist who plays chess with his dog and drinks a little more than he should, chainsmokes on the rough nights. He burned out on his work and when he died, he didn't leave behind many people who'll remember him a year from now. He's not any kind of a hero, super or otherwise; he cares and he does what he can, when he can do it, which sometimes is enough and sometimes isn't. The world that made Remy and Wanda isn't anywhere he understands, but he likes them enough to want to help out here, so theoretically he could learn.

"It'd be nice to say I've never known anyone to apologize for having people care about them enough before," he says, reflectively, over the tequila.

"It's too little too late," he says with something of a raw edge to his voice. They're all painfully aware that no one cared about Wanda in enough of the right ways. It's not like Gambit and Rictor were anywhere near her, then, and it's not like Donna and Niko and even Nick could have possibly been there, but it's still true.

"All we can do is work at it."

"We do what we can." It's all you can ever do. It doesn't make it any easier.

"Next few weeks are gon' be interestin'," Remy says as he rolls his shoulders, stretching. "I'll make sure you're kept up to date 'bout what's goin' on wit Magneto an' all."

Nick makes a gesture not unlike a salute with his shot glass. "I appreciate that." It's nice to know the things with which one should not fuck in advance - the way he's lived his life is probably a testament to his belief in that fact. Probably phrased exactly that way.

Remy stands up. Time to get back to work, and Nick is apparently In The Clear as far as getting tossed off buildings go.

"Well, I better finish cleanin' up, I got various... potential crises to handle an' all. Thanks for droppin' by."

"Pleasure to," Nick says - what, he got beer and tequila and not dropped off a building, that counts - as he rises as well to pocket his cigarettes and head off. "Have a good one, Remy."